Ron Really Wants to Know What is Going On
by FeeBe
Summary: Sequel to The Suitcase. Ron is confused, Harry knows what is going on and Hermione figures it out. And what's all this about Malfoy...I mean Draco. Trick or Treat Challenge- Potter- 12 Confused.


Harry was confused. Nothing unusual there. He supposed that somewhere after his re-introduction to the wizarding world he must have become accustomed to the feeling so that he barely even noticed it most days.

"That was a niffler on my suitcase wasn't it?"

"Um-hmmm," Ron agreed looking equally perplexed.

"Don't move Harry!"

Harry paused in his efforts to right himself from where he had crash landed. "What?"

"The sand from the time turner, it's all over the floor, not to mention you dove through it. Who knows if you ingested any?"

Ron tipped his head to the side, none the wiser for Hermione's explanation, "What?"

"Swallowed," Harry explained, Hermione looked at him in surprised. "What?" Seeing her look he explained. "Dudley's second room, which they moved me into after the Hogwart's letter got sent out, 'cause they went all paranoid and thought the wizards were watching them." He coughed, "Anyway, it was full of all the old things that he didn't want any more. Broken toys and the like, yeah? Well he also didn't want books. There weren't a lot there, because seriously who would give Dudley books? But there was a dictionary. And when you're shut in a room for an entire summer, with your schoolwork locked in the cupboard under the stairs, I can tell you that you'll do pretty much anything you can find to do. Which includes reading the Oxford dictionary from cover to cover."

"Oh!" Hermione winced, she hadn't really meant to remind Harry of his upbringing.

"So why should we avoid the funky dust from inside the time turner?" Ron asked.

Hermione and Harry both turned to look at Ron in disbelief.

"Did you not see what just happened to the poor niffler?" Hermione asked waving her hand towards the now partially vacant space beside the sofa.

"Where do you think it went?" Harry asked.

"It's impossible to say," Hermione shrugged. "It isn't something I've studied a lot."

"Something you haven't studied yet?!" Ron looked positively aghast.

Hermione continued on with a frown, ignoring Ron, "I could ask the Unspeakables when I get to work on Monday. Though I might have to confess to having the time turner."

"Would you get in much trouble?"

Hermione grimaced, the Unspeakables weren't known for their forgiving nature. Not to mention what they might do to Harry if they found out he might have swallowed or inhaled the time turner dust…sand…whatever it was. Being more inclined to chop it up to have a look at it, rather than a wait and see. No, it would be much less dangerous for all concerned if she just did a little …independent research.

Finally Hermione replied with a sigh, "I'll just have to find some books on the subject. Mentioning it to them might not be worth the hassle."

"Hmm, if anything is going to happen it won't occur until that stuff gets absorbed into my bloodstream. So we've got about 24 hours. If nothing has happened by the morning after tomorrow I should be home free."

"That's rid….actually makes a lot of sense, Harry," Hermione agreed.

"What? Why?" Ron really was having difficulty following the conversation.

"Well the ….let's call it the magical agent needs to be free to act. In the digestive tract it's not, because the acid produced by the stomach isolates the substance from the surrounding tissues. Depending on how it actually works. It activated nearly on contact with the skin of the niffler and the suitcase. Nifflers are of course magical beasts and so have a certain level of magic present in their skin or fur which the substance was then free to bind to and use."

"But what about your suitcase? That was muggle! You even fixed it up yourself with, what did you call it farts and crarts supplies?"

"Arts and Crafts," correct Hermione, shaking her head and suppressing a giggle.

Harry blushed, "Yeah I was a bit embarrassed to tell you at the time, but I got interrupted just as I was casting the undetectable extension charm on it. It kind of has an…endless space in it."

"Endless?" Hermione blinked.

"Yeah," Harry gave a wry smile. "Well there is a floor, but I haven't found any walls or a ceiling as yet."

"But that little room?"

"Ah, that. Well I kind of had to make that so that I didn't lose everything I put in there. I've got a book on it somewhere." He gestured vaguely towards his rucksack. Hermione's eyes immediately took on a hungry look.

"Not now Hermione," Ron interrupted. "Why would that matter?"

"Well Magic has a….. weight….no density…..no gravity,"

Hermione nodded, "That's a good way of describing it Harry. When did you start reading Magical Theory?"

The dark-haired boy shrugged, "Travelling the muggle way leads to lots of time waiting."

"Oi, what's gravity?"

Harry looked bemusedly at Hermione. After a brief non-verbal argument, which Harry unsurprisingly lost, he tried to explain, "Ok so think of it as an energy field that draws simi…." Ron's eyes had gone blank. "Right, think of it as being like a quidditch player."

"What?" Ron's eyes focussed sharply on Harry, while Hermione watched on bemusedly.

"Yes Ron Quidditch. So the keeper and all the other players have magic right, but there is all this free floating magic in the air, like quaffles. The free floating magic, the quidditch balls, in the air like to get close to the magic in the players moving around the field. By interacting with them, the quaffles move around. Then you have the hoops, which are also magic, these are areas of really concentrated magical energy, that like to draw all the magic out of the air and absorb it over time. So the the free magic in the air will be drawn to the hoops where it would be absorbed, however the keeper can intercept that magic and send it another more useful direction. Basically the magic in the air wants to be used and will gravitate or move towards large deposits of magic, where it can be used or absorbed. Are you still with me?"

Ron nodded.

"So there was a huge magical input into the suitcase. We can actually measure it, it's called the 'thaum'. Because there are already a lot of 'thaums' in my suitcase already, it will have drawn the magical energy in the stuff from the time turner to itself."

"Right," Ron drew out the word out disbelievingly.

"The evidence being that it disappeared with the niffler."

"Um Harry?" Hermione suddenly asked.

"Why was there a niffler in your suitcase anyway?"

"Stow away?"

She raised an eyebrow.

"Um, right, I should have known you wouldn't fall for that. He….She…..Ah It? The truth is I don't actually know. There was a moment after I arrived before I got dinner that I put the case down. I thought I heard a noise, but couldn't see anything, so it must have slipped in then."

Hermione shook her head, her face bland, "It could only happen to you Harry!"

"Oi, that's not nice. There is also the chance that it got on board sometime during the cruise between Australia and New Zealand." Harry scratched his head thoughtfully, "I was at dinner on the first…wait no….no the second night, definitely the second night. When there was a disruption up at the Captain's table. One of the ladies stood up screeching that her necklace had been stolen. Well there was a lot of fussing, but no-one had seen anything, so everyone went back to their meals. The next day, all the onboard shops were shut because some one had broken in and stolen all the jewellery overnight. I thought at the time it was a bit odd."

"Wouldn't you have known? A niffler doesn't weigh nothing after all," pointed out Ron.

"Ron there's a whole room down there and a paddock bigger than the one at the Burrow."

"Oh."

"Right well, I guess you'll have to stay here for the next couple of days then," Hermione stated as if it were a foregone conclusion.

"I was going to head back to Grimmauld actually," Harry disagreed.

"We don't know if that….stuff will do anything to you. So you'll be staying where I can keep an eye on you," Hermione argued back.

"You'll be at work!"

"Ron can take a few days off,"

"Yeah Harry, I can take a few…..Hang on. Why am I taking a few days off?" Ron asked.

Hermione let out a put-upon sigh, "I'll need to go to work to get some books on all this palaver, and this is the slow period for the Wheezes, so they'll be fine without you."

"Fine,"

"Don't I get a say in this?" Harry complained.

"No," Ron and Hermione replied in unison, barely sparing a glance for their best friend.

After a moment Harry, peered up at his friends through his fringe and feeling a little uncomfortable said, "I actually really missed you guys, you know."

"Oh Harry," Hermione was on him in a moment, engulfing him in a tight hug.

"Right let's get to bed, the spare room is already made up for you Harry."

Harry spent the next day regaling Ron with tales of his travels and when Ron lost interest they played endless games of wizards chess.

"After the day that I've had, I hope you pair have already got the dinner on!" Hermione stated as she pushed open the door at 5 o'clock. Ron looked up guiltily, frozen in the process of ordering his bishop to take Harry's rook.

"Yes of course we have Hermione," Harry dutifully replied.

"We have?" Ron asked.

"Yes that was the roast I put in the oven earlier. Remember you were debating over taking my bishop or leaving it for the next move."

"But… You know what never mind."

Hermione dumped three books in front Harry.

"This is all I could find. And I had to bribe Draco with a date in order to get them."

"Draco? Why Draco?" Harry asked.

"A date!" spluttered Ron, "But you…I mean…we."

Hermione smiled slyly at Ron, "Not with me."

"Then with who?"

She turned to look at Harry and winked.

"Why would Draco want to go on a date with me?" he asked tightly.

"Well he's single, you're single…"

"But he's straight and I'm…."

"Yes Harry you are…..?"

"Undefined at this current time, but I'll get back to you when I know."

"What?" Ron was getting more confused as the conversation progressed, however there was one point that he couldn't get passed. "Since when do we call him Draco?" he finally blurted out.

"We?" Hermione arched an elegant brow.

"Well if you and Harry do that's the majority so, I guess it will be we. I just want to know when and why."

Hermione looked at Harry, who shrugged.

"Well I've had a lot of time to think, and I reckon that we're all adults now, it's time to start acting like it. The war is long over and I for one don't want to continue with the division and prejudice we learnt at school. He seemed like he was on the way to figuring things out when I gave him his wand back."

"And you?" Ron turned to Hermione.

"I work with him. To do that we must maintain a professional manner, and there is no way I am calling him Mr Malfoy, so Draco it is."

"Huh," Ron considered, before deciding to go with it. "So when is Harry's date then?"

"Now hold on a sec, I never agreed to this," it was Harry's turn to sputter.

"Well we wanted the books, Harry," Hermione argued reasonably, "And there wasn't anything I could offer. His engagement to Astoria Greengrass fell through so …."

"Yes, that right there Hermione, he's straight!"

"Well not that straight if he agreed to go on a date with you," she grinned.

"Argh, why do these things always happen to me!"

"You never know he might be the love of your life Harry," Ron smacked Harry firmly on the shoulder.

"So when is it then?"

"He'll owl you Harry," Hermione said as she reached for one of the books.


End file.
